Self-motion mechanism of chained spherical grains cells

Abstract

Cells are modeled with spherical grains connected each other. Each cell can shrink and swell by transporting its fluid content to other connected neighbor while still maintaining its density at constant value. As a spherical part of a cell swells it gains more pressure from its surrounding, while shrink state gains less pressure. Pressure difference between these two or more parts of cell will create motion force for the cell. For simplicity, cell is considered to have same density as its environment fluid and connections between parts of cell are virtually accommodated by a spring force. This model is also limited to 2-d case. Influence of parameters to cell motion will be presented. One grain cell shows no motion, while two and more grains cell can perform a motion.